Panko Fried Chicken Strips

Miss Thing was recently complaining that there isn’t enough chicken in her life. Apparently, she has recently decided she doesn’t like beef that much. I swear, every week there’s something different that she used to like that now she says she hates. But anyways, I threw this little dish together the other night, and I think it came out rather well. We served it with a Veggie Tian that I will be posting a little later.

Oh – and if this blog post seems a little scattered and distracted, it’s probably because I am scattered and distracted. I’ve spent all morning monkeying around with Miss Thing’s Ipod, and now have it finally accepting music, but of course we had to wipe it and restore it to make that happen – and if there’s anything worse than a teenager, it’s gotta be a teenager who is grumpy about her ipod being wiped and not having music… even if it’s only for a week or so until the new iphones come out… So while I’m typing this up, I’m also playing DJ/Playlist maker, calling out “This One? How about This one?” over and over.

I’ve been trying to get this posted for a couple of days now, but it just seems like everything’s been conspiring against me. My whole week just keeps getting swallowed up. On Wednesday we saw Spamalot in San Francisco with some friends after having an awesome dinner at Farmer Brown. I had the Fried Chicken, which was EXCELLENT and Mr. Man had the Ribeye, which was also excellent. I think that Farmer Brown might just be my new favorite restaurant evah. If you’re in the city, I highly suggest you check them out.

Anyhow, this dish turned out really well. Miss Thing and Mr. Man gave it a thumbs up. I threw some chopped pecans in with the breading, but next time I think I’d skip them, since they didn’t really stick that well. I used Chicken breast, because I’m not really a big fan of dark (chicken) meat, but you could easily use thigh meat or whatever cut you like for this – although it might take longer to cook if you go with thicker pieces. The chicken breast cooked up quickly and evenly though – so I whole-heartedly endorse the idea of cutting them in to semi-uniform sizes, even if you go with another cut of meat. Best part is, it didn’t really require a whole lot of planning to do – since I hadn’t really set up a marinade or anything. Not to say that the chicken couldn’t have benefitted from a spice rub, but this was one of those “n33d f00d na0 pls, kthx” nights when I didn’t really have a plan, per se.

Ingredients:

1 lb boneless, skinless Chicken Breast, cut in to strips

1 cup Panko Bread Crumbs

1/2 cup Finely Shredded Romano Cheese

1/2 cup Chopped Pecans

1 Egg, beaten

2 tbs Butter

2 tbs Olive Oil

1 tsp Black Pepper (or to taste)

1/2 tsp Kosher Salt; plus extra

Method:

Lay the chicken pieces out on a plate and sprinkle liberally on both sides with kosher salt. Set aside.

In a shallow dish (I used a pie pan, stir together the panko bread crumbs, pecans, romano cheese, 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt and the Black Pepper

Melt the butter with the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat

Working on one strip at a time, first dip a piece of chicken in the egg mixture, and then the bread crumbs, pressing the bread crumbs in to the chicken pieces for good adhesion.

Place the chicken strips in to the frying pan and cook until golden brown and cooked through.